The ASMR-style videos highlight the video recording quality of the Sony Xperia XZ1 phone. The full campaign and videos are posted on the website of Carphone Warehouse, the top independent mobile online retailer in the UK.

What prompted Carphone Warehouse and Sony to create ASMR videos to help promote the Xperia XZ1 phone?

At the time of the publication she was a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at James Cook University in Singapore. In January 2018, she will be a Senior Lecturer in the Dept of Psychology at Bath Spa University in the UK.

Dr Janik McErlean co-authored the paper with Dr Michael Banissy and the research was published March 30, 2017 in the journal Multisensory Research.

In my interview with Dr Janik McErlean she shares how she became interested in researching ASMR, the goals and methods of her study, the insights she uncovered about ASMR triggers, and her findings about the personality and empathy traits of ASMR responders.

Earlier this year a health bulletin was posted by United Concordia Health Insurance about the potential benefits of ASMR for easing dental anxiety. This was the first public support I had seen for the potential health benefits of ASMR by a health insurance provider.

And now another health insurance provider is publicly promoting the potential benefits of ASMR to relieve stress and inducing sleep.

AXA PPP Healthcare is one of the largest health insurance providers in the UK and last month they posted an article titled, “ASMR – Autonomous sensory meridian response.”

The posting includes text, a video, an audio file (both created by Emma Smith, the ASMR artist known as WhispersRed), and also an infographic about the potential biology of ASMR.

According to their September 1 2017 news release about the “Sensations” marketing campaign for the 2018 Camry,

“A different creative execution incorporates ASMR technology (autonomous sensory meridian response) – a tingling many people experience when listening to certain sounds – to magnify sensations, create rich sight and sound content and highlight the extraordinary features of the new Camry.”

There is a problem though. I didn’t find strong evidence of ASMR-inspiration in the nine campaign videos I watched.